A bit of an add-on to Burloak’s post: Before the MOU was signed which led the way for that study he linked to, TransitToronto claims the Prov had been prepared to offer $2,000,000,000 towards the construction of the Sheppard Subway extension on the condition that the Eglinton LRT be allowed to operate on the surface. This was turned down by the Ford administration.
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4124.shtml (so, I guess that's $2bn
on top of the deferred +$2bn for the FWLRT and SELRT?)
Regardless, the Prov signed an MOU anyways. So let’s see the subway projects they've thrown support behind on a whim: Spadina extension to some barren fields in Vaughan (8.6km), Yonge extension to vacant land in Richmond Hill/Markham (6.8km), seemingly a Sheppard ext (?), an all-underground Crosstown (19km), Scarborough Subway (7.6km)....
But the Relief line (or just its initial 5.5km)? Whoa, whoa, hold your horses. Apparently the RL 'doesn’t mean just a subway'. It "...
involves potentially subway, it involves buses, it involves a number of different considerations". Clearly we’re "
getting ahead of ourselves" and need to be cautioned against "
seizing on one solution".
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...c_go_top_priorities_for_new_transit_fund.html
The Prov can support subways at the snap of a finger, make it rain suburban subways willy nilly, and completely ignore affordable subway-like options such as elevated rail. But the one project where ridership projections are reliably high and haven’t decreased over the decades (like virtually every other proposal), and is absolutely critical from a network perspective? Ignored from the MO2020 plan, only included as a short ad hoc afterthought at #48 for the '25-year' Big Move (seemingly because those behind Yonge North didn’t do their homework); not to mention stated on the record that it may not be important enough to warrant subway-level investment. Why? Because apparently we 'mustn’t get ahead of ourselves'.
When Metrolinx’s long list of Relief ideas are released in the next few weeks, I certainly hope we’ll be seeing a fully grade-separated rapid transit line. If it "involves buses" like they’ve aloofly and bizarrely claimed, I think all bets are off and that something’s definitely awry at the agency.